Revised jantri may impact Gujarat's realty

Aimed at bringing the much-needed transparency in Gujarat's real estate, the revised Jantri prices "" a ready reckoner for stamp duty "" may further put pressure on realty prices.

There is a mixed opinion on whether Gujarat's real estate sector, which is showing signs of a slowdown, would see a price correction. However, a group of developers believe this may happen in the next three months.

Developers say the crash in the stock market may affect realty market in the coming days. And, the revised jantri rates may only make things worse as it will result in higher stamp duty making the transactions costlier.

As such, very few major land deals had been struck in the last one year or so, sources said.

In some distant pockets of Nikol and Vastral, the new jantri prices are 40-50-fold higher than the existing rates.

"There are some land parcels here where the actual price is Rs 119 per sq yard but the revised jantri puts it at Rs 4,000 per sq yard. Our business will get impacted due to this," said Motibhai Prajapati of Madhav Group and member of the Eastern Builders Association.

Vijay Shah, a city-based developer said, last year in February, jantri prices were revised by 50 per cent and every April this was hiked by 5 per cent.

"There is no logic for such a steep hike in many places be it at Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot or Ahmedabad. The sector will itself see a correction of 15-20 per cent within the next three months," he felt.

However, the revised jantri, would keep away speculators and see a rise in actual buyers, said Shrenik Shah, CEO of Space Management. "The number of transactions will come down and supply side will go up," Shah added.

In a residential scheme, the number of investors is about 70 per cent, according to market estimates.

Some investors, who have been allotted residential properties in the upcoming schemes at a discount by the builders, are now exiting at a price, which is lower than what is being quoted by the builder, sources said.